An American movie producer is sharing excerpts of sexist scripts he gets sent, to highlight the grim state of roles for women in film – as well as some equally dire writing.
Ross Putman, who wrote and produced the 2012 film Trigger Finger, created the @femscriptintros Twitter account on Wednesday to share examples of how female lead characters are introduced in “actual scripts” he reads.
“Names changed to JANE, otherwise verbatim,” states his bio. “Update as I go. Apologies if I quote your work.”
He’s tweeted only 22 times but has close to 26k people following his second-hand descriptions of female characters who are hot and/or cute, and often unaware of it themselves.
JANE, 28, athletic but sexy. A natural beauty. Most days she wears jeans, and she makes them look good.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
Like draping the Venus De Milo in a burlap dress, Jane’s sensational natural beauty fights through her plain blue Ann Taylor outfit.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
JANE stands next to it (30's) dressed in a paramedic's uniform - blonde, fit, smokin' hot.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
A gorgeous woman, JANE, 23, is a little tipsy, dancing naked on her big bed, as adorable as she is sexy. *BONUS PTS FOR BEING THE 1ST LINE
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
All heads turn to find JANE (28) in the doorway: stunning and trying her best to hide it.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
A YOUNG MEXICAN WOMAN sitting on a BUS STOP BENCH. Her name is JANE. She yawns, stretching her pretty face as she struggles to wake up.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
JANE is in her mid-30s and attractive, even now with dark semi-circles underlining her closed eyes.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
Behind a steamy shower door is the indistinguishable but sexy silhouette of JANE showering.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
This is JANE. She’s lithe, leggy, spirited, outgoing, not afraid to speak her mind, with a sense of humor as dry as the Sonoran Desert.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
JANE, late 20s, whip smart, elegant, and ambitious.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
His wife JANE is making dinner and watching CNN on a small TV. She was model pretty once, but living an actual life has taken its toll.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
JANE (late 20s) sits hunched over a microscope. She’s attractive, but too much of a professional to care about her appearance.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
She turns and we see her face for the first time. This is the very beautiful, very troubled JANE.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
Though drop-dead beautiful, JANE (40) has the appearance of someone whose confidence has been shaken. She is a raw, sexual force, impeded.
— Ross Putman (@femscriptintros) February 10, 2016
Putman presents the descriptions without commentary, but responded to one Twitter user who expressed incredulousness that they could possibly be from real scripts: “couldn’t make them up if I tried”.
Asked by another Twitter user whether he would tweet “cool shit” from scripts as well as “negative shit”, he indicated that he planned to post every introduction for every female lead character in every script he read, regardless of whether they were sexist or not – “but you will notice quite a few of them are ... well, similarly problematic”.
“Film Crit Hulk”, a popular film blogger with more than 5.18k followers on Twitter, praised Putman for “doing Gawd’s work”.
PLEASE OH PLEASE FOLLOW @femscriptintros FOR DOING GAWD'S WORK. IT REALLY IS THIS BAD ACROSS THE FUCKING BOARD...
— FILM CRIT HULK (@FilmCritHULK) February 10, 2016
IF WOMEN ARE ONLY BEAUTIFUL BECAUSE YOUR MAIN CHARACTER TELLS THEM THAT THEN PERHAPS YOU NEED TO THINK ABOUT YOUR WORLD VIEW.
— FILM CRIT HULK (@FilmCritHULK) February 10, 2016
Though the number of lead characters played by women in major films leapt 10% in 2015, a recent report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found that women made up just 19% of the top behind-the-scenes jobs in Hollywood last year.
Reese Witherspoon spoke of her frustration with the below-standard roles on offer for female actors – which led her to set up her own production company, Pacific Standard – earlier this month.
“About four years ago, I got sent this awful script,” Witherspoon said. “And this male star was starring in it, and there was a girlfriend part. And I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. No, I’m not interested.’
“They said, ‘Well, this actress is chasing it, that actress is chasing it.’ Like, three Oscar winners and two huge box-office leading ladies. And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s where we’re at? You’re fighting to be the girlfriend in a dumb comedy? For what?’ And by the way, two Oscar winners did it. I was like, ‘I’ve got to do something.’”
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